War on God, oops Drugs

* maha:

"Last year righties cheered the Lebanese who protested Syrian occupation, and they adopted the simple-minded but mistaken notion that the Lebanese were inspired by U.S. actions in Iraq to call for freedom. Today, some of the same bloggers who cheered for the people of Lebanon in 2005 (and complained that news media weren’t giving Bush enough credit) today condemn the New York Times for reporting that Israeli bombs killed Lebanese women and children. Sometimes their binary sorting system (good/bad, black/white, us/them) does create some discrepancies."

* juan cole:

"Americans have to understand that when Israel goes wild and bombs a civilian airport and civilian neighborhoods in Beirut, a lot of the world's Catholics (Lebanon is partially a Catholic country) and its 1.4 billion Muslims blame the United States for it. Israel is given billions every year by the United States, including sophisticated weaponry that is now being trained on the slums of south Beirut. It should also be remembered that Bin Laden said, at least, that he started thinking about hitting New York when he saw that 1982 Israeli destruction of the skyscrapers or "towers" of Lebanon. How many future Bin Ladens are watching with horror and rage and feelings of revenge as Israel drops bombs on civilian tenement buildings? When will this blow back on Americans? "

* juan cole:

"As the Saudis pointed out, Hizbullah's latest actions are a form of ill-conceived adventurism that has plunged the region into greater crisis. On the other side, Condi Rice called on the Israelis to exercise restraint in their response in Lebanon. Given the power of the Israel Lobby in Washington, this statement is about as close as you would get nowadays to a denunciation of disproportionate Israeli attacks on the whole Lebanese people for the actions of a handful of Shiite guerrillas in the far south of the country.

Yes, I am saying that Wahhabi Saudi Arabia and the Bush administration Secretary of State are the adults in all this."

i'm so not happy hearing that Condi is the adult. egads. what have we become?

* in other news, this via juan cole:

"In the Johns Hopkins study, two-thirds of the 36 volunteers, given capsules of psilocybin extracted from the (magic) mushrooms, claimed they had what they described as a religious experience.

By that, they meant a sense of pure awareness, transcending time and space and feeling positive moods like joy, peace and love.

They claimed it changed their lives for the better. Not only that, one-third said the experience was the most significant of their lives, likening it to a child's birth or a parent's death.

Two months later, almost 80 per cent of the volunteers reported feeling ongoing positive effects."

how much fun would it be to see a War on God, oops Drugs, God, oops Drugs, God, oops Drugs, God, oops Drugs, God, oops Drugs, God, oops Drugs, I'm so confused.

Luckily:

"Religious leaders were... skeptical. "... I'm very, very suspicious about whether these experiences are genuinely spiritual," said Fr. Terry Kersch of St. Basil's Parish in Toronto."

Father Terry has a monopoly to protect.